BOOT CAMP DEATH
Fla. students
demand justice in boot camp death
Brooms in hand, a
group of Florida students demanded state officials
not 'sweep' under the rug the death of a Bay County
teen at a military-style youth camp.
BY TINA CUMMINGS AND CAROL
MARBIN MILLER
Oct. 20, 2006
TALLAHASSEE
- Student activists marched on the state
Capitol with brooms Thursday, declaring they would
not let Gov. Jeb Bush and state officials ''sweep
under the rug'' the Jan. 6 death of Martin Lee
Anderson at a Panhandle boot camp for juvenile
delinquents.
The 11 a.m.
demonstration came one day after a federal judge in
Tallahassee dealt a blow to Anderson's parents, who
had filed a civil lawsuit claiming that the
negligence of state juvenile justice and Bay County
Sheriff's officials led to their son's death.
In a ruling
Wednesday, Chief U.S. District Judge Robert L.
Hinkle dismissed an allegation in the lawsuit that
Bay County Sheriff's officers and administrators at
the Department of Juvenile Justice ''conspired'' to
cover up the cause of death.
Hinkle also ruled
the family could not recover punitive damages if a
North Florida jury rules in their favor.
The rally, which
was organized by a group of students from Florida
State University and Florida A&M University, began
at a Tallahassee square several blocks from the
Capitol, called Kleman Plaza, and ended at the
Capitol Courtyard with students chanting, among
other things, ``Justice Delayed, Justice Denied.''
Anderson, 14, was
admitted to the Bay County Sheriff's Office Boot
Camp Jan. 5 on a joyriding conviction. He died after
a 30- to 40-minute restraint, in which guards
punched and kneed him, and applied painful pressure
to his head and jaw.
An autopsy by Bay
County's medical examiner, Charles Siebert, ruled
the youth died of sickle cell trait, a genetic blood
disorder. But a second autopsy ordered by a
Tampa-based special prosecutor concluded the youth
was asphyxiated.
''We are here to
speak for a boy who has no voice today,'' Andrew
Gillum, a Tallahassee city commissioner who
graduated from FAMU, said at the rally.
Said Octavia
Singleton, an FSU freshman studying social work:
``This young man was killed over nothing. His
parents thought he was going off to be
rehabilitated, and he came back dead. . . . We need
justice. This boy's family needs to be able to have
some peace.''
The trial in
Anderson's parents' civil lawsuit is set to begin
April 16.
In his order, the
judge said he dismissed the family's claim for
punitive damages against the state and sheriff's
office because state law specifically forbids such
recoveries.
Ruth Sasser, a
spokeswoman for Bay County Sheriff Frank McKeithen,
whose boot camp since has closed, declined to
discuss Hinkle's order Thursday, as did Cynthia
Lorenzo, DJJ Secretary Anthony Schembri's chief of
staff.
''Due to pending
litigation, we are unable to comment on Judge
Hinkle's order,'' Lorenzo wrote in an e-mail to The
Miami Herald.
Benjamim Crump, who
represents Anderson's parents, Robert Anderson and
Gina Jones, said the order was disappointing because
the family had hoped to secure a verdict from a jury
that state officials had conspired to cover up the
cause of death. He was pleased, however, that the
judge left in a claim that state officials violated
Anderson's civil rights.
The order, Crump
said, ``does nothing to affect the heart of the
issue.''
The family still
can argue that state and Bay County officials were
responsible for -- and tried to cover up --
Anderson's death, Crump said. ``We just can't call
it a conspiracy.''
